Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has said that the Commission took the decision to suspend the licensing of some of the potential frequency bands of 26GHz, 38GHz and 42Ghz to ensure that Nigeria is not caught napping when the frequency bands are eventually harmonised for 5G deployment in region 1 by standardization bodies.

Danbatta made the revelation at the stakeholders’ consultative forum organised by the NCC on 5G readiness and High Altitude Platform Station Technologies (HAPS)held in Abuja.

He explained that though, the 5G framework is still being defined by the ITU, the Commission had to take the bull by the horn to ensure Nigeria’s readiness for the imminent 5G evolution by putting in place necessary regulatory frameworks so as to flow in the wave of the trend.

According to him, the Commission decided to organise the forum in order to gather relevant inputs to be considered in developing regulatory framework in preparation for 5G and HAPS technologies because it considered 5G networks as the next generation of connectivity in the telecommunications industry.